Managing a Creative Life in a Chaotic World

Juliet Marillier Workshop

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a workshop conducted by fantasy writer, Juliet Marillier. She deftly demonstrated how writers can put new skin on the old bones of fairy tales to create completely new tales for almost any genre. I realize this is not exactly a new idea. Heck, as she put it, people have been dumping ideas into the story caldron and dishing out new ideas to serve for hundreds if not thousands of years. But what Ms. Marillier did was more than just hand us a recipe for our writing; she led us to the kitchen and set us loose. In a relatively short amount of time we were brewing up ideas all our own complete with characters, symbolism, themes, and maybe even a touch of magic.

It didn’t hurt, either, that I was also surrounded by a room full of creative and talented writers, or that the workshop took place at the beautiful Santa Barbara Mission, or that Gwen Dandridge, our organizer for the event, did some cooking of her own to provide us with a table full of goodies. There was not a poison apple in sight, just some deadly brownies and muffins and some of the best blood orange marmalade I’ve ever tasted. Best of all I went home ready to hit the keyboard. Now that’s a happy ending!